Playwright Dominique Morisseau Wants To 'Dismantle' Broadway

essence.com:

Broadway. “I want visibility for Black theater makers and the Black folks who’ve been doing this work,” the actress and award-winning playwright told ESSENCE.

Morriseau does the work by connecting national conversations about globalization, academic discrimination, and rampant gentrification to everyday moments, like clocking in for a shift or covering for a colleague, on stage.Before inspiring patrons to flock to Ain’t Too Proud – The Life and Times of The Temptations she created productions including Follow me to Nellie’s (Premiere Stages 2011), Sunset Baby (LAByrinth Theatre 2013), Blood at the Root (National Black Theatre 2014), Pipeline (Lincoln Center Theatre 2017), and Paradise Blue (Signature Theatre 2018).

She learned just how much her efforts meant to people suddenly when learning how many of them argued she deserved the coveted MacArthur Fellowship.She described the announcement as having “any other day in your life,” instantly reshaped into “the weirdest day of your life.”“All of a sudden, you just turn up with this thing that you never had before and everybody’s congratulating you.

But what I love about the MacArthr, is how much it supports people that are trying to do good work and keep us sustained to be able to do it for our lifetime,” said Morisseau as her son cooed in the background.Her peers made the moment feel special. “They have to talk to about 30 to 40 of your colleagues and people in the field with you,” Morisseau explained.